Is this the end of tipping in New York restaurants? (Picture:Getty/Metro)

Tipping in the Big Apple could soon be dead as one of the largest and most prestigious restaurant groups has banned gratuities at more than a dozen of its eateries.

The Union Square Hospitality Group will begin the radical new policy in November, reports the Guardian, thus bringing it in line with European and Asian restaurants where tipping is either non-existent or cursory.

This group employs 1,800 staff across the city and hope this move will allow profits and earnings to be shared not only among waiting staff but also those based in the kitchen such a cooks and dishwashers.

Currently there are laws in place that demand that tips may not shared by all the staff but only by a select number of front of house employees such as waiting and bar staff.

Danny Meyer, the group’s CEO told NPR’s Kelly McEvers: ‘I think that restaurant patrons have unwittingly believed that they could, if they wanted to, use their tip to punish bad service, and/or to praise great service

‘What that’s done over the years has actually been quite the opposite, because the average American restaurant-goer leaves the exact same tip, irrespective of the service they receive.

‘And unfortunately, none of those tips that you leave in a restaurant may be shared with the full team, i.e. the cooks, the dishwashers, the prep cooks, the butchers, etc.’

In the United States, critics have claimed tipping has been seen by many as an excuse for restaurants to avoid paying their serving staff a decent wage.